Huge Revolution: Past Image
by lalunaticscribe
Summary: Dedicated to Tensa Zangetsu 17 for 100th review. A flashback to the Marineford War, and how Ace decided that Fudo Yusei might be a magnificent bastard. Involves drinking, confessions under alcohol, and brother complexes. No real direction.


_**Huge Revolution: Past Image**_

_**An LLS Production**_

_**Dedicated to Restructer Revolution's 100th reviewer, Tensa Zangetsu 17.**_

* * *

The War of the Best. The Marineford War. One of the world's largest throw-downs in history, and as tough digits clung onto his back, clinging on for dear life, Yusei was wondering...

"How does he do it?"

"What?" Portgas D. Ace stared at his brother's handyman.

"I mean, the earthquakes can be attributed to the Devil Fruit, but... that size," Yusei spoke without thinking. "And that strength. How?"

"Er... what?" Ace questioned.

"Whitebeard," Yusei muttered. "I mean, my D-Wheel bounced off him. That's... just..."

"Er, yeah," Ace nodded, knowing from personal experience how Whitebeard tended to awe with size alone if not by action or reputation. "I know how you feel."

At least _one_ of them had a modicum of common sense, although Ace still wondered about it. This was the man who was charging through Marineford on a motorcycle that looked like it'd been halfway through hell and back and Marineford and even _flew_ in for his little brother. Things like a grown man's size should hardly be disturbing. Perhaps it was unusual too, the way he focused on Whitebeard's size instead of, say, the Devil Fruit powers capable of destroying the world.

Now they were being shot at again, and Ace was getting irritated. "You're the guy who has the freaking dragons and bloody rammed your freaking dragon into the execution platform! Shut up and get us out of here!"

"There's a limit to how much I can do too," Fudo Yusei answered him as the red motorcycle ate its way through a horde of Marines.

"Then get down and fight them!" Ace yelled.

"You have no common sense, do you?" Yusei answered as he gunned the motorcycle to run over more Marines, absently slapping away a musket aimed at him to punch the Marine mook holding it in the face, and ace felt some gesture of respect for Fudo Yusei. "We're supposed to be _running._"

Ace was about to reply when the Marine admiral just had to step in, and that was when his whole world-view changed.

* * *

Later, somewhere in Amazon Lily, Ace managed to confront the man, handing over some sake taken when Boa Hancock was still mooning over Luffy. "What did you mean then, when you said that I have no common sense?"

Yusei blinked, no doubt recalling as he easily answered the next, the sake loosening his lips slightly. "Running implies less confrontation and more focus on egress than busting our way out. Luffy San has no common sense but plenty of charisma. If he lived, many would have been inspired by his example, which the World Government could not allow. I had five days to refit two D-Wheels and about twenty attachments to DenDen Mushi, not to mention other arrangements to pull both of you out alive. A normal human being, albeit with monsters, against a hundred thousand trained soldiers who may or may not have powers, is suicidal on foot, so I focused more on egress above anything."

Ace got the gist of that, never mind the rest. "Yeah, but don't you have some manly pride? Why the hell did you even follow Luffy in?"

"Pride gets people killed," was Yusei's blunt reply. A tinge of light pink dusted his cheeks, but he remained remarkably sensible for someone who downed half a cup of the island's strongest alcohol straight. "There are some battles we need to fight, and some battles we do not have to. Luffy San challenges the whole world to a fight, that is his nature. I choose how I fight, and fight when I have to, that is my nature. I followed Luffy San because it would have been worse, and we are... comrades. That is my pride as a comrade of Luffy San. However, as long as the objective is fulfilled and no one dies, I do not care if my means were underhanded."

"So... you cheated to get us out," Ace understood.

"_Winning."_

"Winning," Ace corrected himself as he also took a swig. "You... you magnificent _bastard_. You're... you're... a handyman, alright."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yusei muttered. "You're alive, aren't you?"

"You didn't save the Old man," Ace sighed. "Not that you could have, but... then..."

"When do people die?" Yusei mumbled. "I... I grew up never knowing my parents. About five years ago, I found out that my dad invented a device that was responsible for the deaths of millions."

"What?" Ace blinked.

"Do you know... the deaths of millions... my best friends had no parents because of that accident," Yusei hiccoughed slightly as he took the bottle. "Their sorrows, anger, despair... how could I repay them, do you know? If I can't save the present, I can't save the future... but I can't reclaim the past at the cost of the future. All I can do... is walk forward."

"People hate drinking with you," Ace muttered as he snatched the bottle back. "You're a horrible drunk."

"Not drunk, Ace San." He was right, dammit. He was still coherent.

Ace shrugged. "Well, you saved me, and Luffy. So... I guess we owe you. Especially me. You know... I always used to worry about Luffy."

"What changed?"

"I realised that your presence may well mean that he's got another big brother."

"Huh?" Yusei blinked sleepily, the buzz of alcohol still present.

"The rest of the Whitebeard Pirates told me to lay low," Ace shrugged. "Me, I'm still alive though the old man's gone. Guess I'll just sail about for a while with you guys, since I owe ya, and I can't let Luffy forcibly adopt you. Otherwise you'll never be free of him."

"Ace San," Yusei muttered as the flame-man got up to leave. "Luffy San is more attached to you than you know."

Three, two, one...

"...really?"

"Ace San, please do not lean so close to me." Yusei blinked at the eager look the older D had.

"What did Luffy say?"

"That you had your own adventure... amongst others."

"Oi, don't skip out! I want to hear if he praised me at all!"

"He did, said that he could never beat you, that you were the big brother."

"He did, he did?"

Yusei, still feeling the alcohol, looked doubtfully at the eager D, and thought... _You bro-con._

* * *

_**Please review!**_


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